True tales of the adventures and creations of a mom and her two daughters.

Category Archives: Interior Design

For those of you who don’t know, I’m taking online courses from Southern New Hampshire University to get a degree in Communications. I’ve been going for many years and I’ve been through various ups and downs, but I’ve managed to maintain my A average. Well, this last term that ended last week had me worried that I might actually fail a course. The course was a fine arts course called Modernism and the first week’s assignments had me very confused and I was struggling with the ideas of modernism and art history. I received low grades the first week and I was disheartened.

I shared my struggles with my close circle of friends and they all insisted that I’d pass just fine and probably with flying colors. I appreciated the support, but I didn’t entirely believe them. As is true often in my life though, I was underestimating myself and sure enough, the class soon clicked for me and I took my grade from a C to an A. I was soon receiving perfect grades every week and I was impressed by how my brain was actually learning new things.

What made me the most happy was working on my final project. We had to do a Modernism exhibition and I chose to focus on Frank Lloyd Wright because I’d always loved his architecture. I found so much interesting information on him that I could’ve written a book, but I limited my exhibition to just under 20 slides. I’m so proud of my accomplishment in the course and of my work on the project that I’m now sharing it with you (with SNHU’s permission of course). I hope you enjoy it!

Friday night amid my hot date of staying home alone, I decided my living room needed a new arrangement. Having the couch right against the front window made it hard to close the curtains properly and sitting there is very cold in the winter. To remedy both of these problems, I started formulating a new layout and planned to put it into action Saturday afternoon.

I spent Saturday morning getting groceries and the experience reminded me why I never shop on weekends. Too many people! I much prefer going during the week when everyone is at their office jobs and school. When I got home from running errands, I was a bit tired but still determined to rearrange my living room.

Moving furniture is in my blood you see. My mother always seemed to be rearranging furniture when I was growing up. I’d come home from school or work and discover the living room or family room totally rearranged, or better yet, both rearranged! She usually did it without any warning and without any help. My father, older brothers, and myself all learned to adapt to the new arrangement until it was randomly changed again.

There isn’t much room for change in my under 1000 square foot house but I still manage to rearrange things when I need to. The furniture-moving Force is rather strong in me and I don’t care how heavy something is or how tight the fit is through the door, I’ll get things where I want them! Since living here, I’ve moved the girls from two rooms into one, rearranged my kitchen to fit in an enormous fridge, and now changed the living room layout.

I like the new living room layout much better than how it was and I don’t imagine I’ll be changing it again anytime soon. Moving the couch so it backs up against my desk creates a better partition between the work area and living area of the room. It’s now easier to stay focused on work at my desk and easier to relax on the couch when I’m done with work. It will also be easier to use the Xbox Kinect too because there’s more open floor space…once the coffee table is removed and the rocking chair is pushed back. I suppose the necessity to do that almost every day keeps the furniture-moving Force strong in this one, which will come in handy if the forces of the Dark Side ever try to trap me with furniture…

Even when the room is dark, the view out the windows is full of light!

This past Sunday was a beautiful day! I got out early to do some errands which included getting groceries and being inexplicably drawn into a craft store. That seems to happen a lot these days! After a brief stop at my mom’s to invite her out for pizza dinner, I headed back home to get some tidying done.

While the arrangement of the toys in the craft/play room is best left to Jordan with her amazing organizational skills (not something she inherited from me), I did my best to tidy up the toys and get them up off the floor. Having a majority of the girls toys in that small room reveals the true size of their collection and gives me ample ammunition for the next time they say “I don’t have anything to play with.” All I have to do is point into that room now!

Toy overflow!

I am indescribably happy to finally have my craft table set up! It’s been in the box since my mom gave it to me over a decade ago and I’ve wanted to set it up somewhere forever. It fits perfectly in front of the window in that room and gives me a great view of my bird feeders! The natural light in that room is plentiful for most of the day but should my crafting run into the darkness, I have a daylight lamp to keep the candle burning, so to speak. The lamp was a gift and I’m certain it will assist in my crafting year round!

Last night I discovered that Star Trek: The Next Generation is on Netflix so I set up my tablet and started the very first episode of the show. I was in geek heaven as I crafted and watched Star Trek!

What was once Jaycie’s room is now a space for creativity and fun. The hardest part is going to be for the three of us girls to get all our work done before we venture into our new favorite place to play. I’m sure we’ll manage somehow…

If you can walk by the window of Attentif’ Design and not notice it, you’re missing a unique shopping experience. The thoughtfully designed front window displays of this shop at 44 Main Street in Amesbury, Massachusetts are designed to grab attention and invite shoppers inside. The latest photo on Facebook of their front window display is proof of how eye-catching their designs are and why you need to step inside, have a look around and acquire whatever strikes your fancy.

There are always so many beautiful things to see in Attentif’ Design that it’s hard to decide where to look first. The store displays are creatively arranged to guide you through the store as your eyes drift across the lovely wares. Owner and interior designer, Kathi Gannett displays items in such a way that it helps you envision them set out neatly in your home. Displays are done by theme, object, color and even purpose and grouped so well that it feels as though you’re touring someone’s well-designed home instead of a shop.

Romance-themed display.

Everyone’s interior decorating tastes are different and Attentif’ Design acknowledges that by having a bit of everything for everyone. Throw pillows are an easy, affordable and quick way to change the look of a couch, chair or window seat and there’s a nice variety inside the store. A pillow featuring a key design adds an antique touch and a brightly colored flower patterned pillow freshens up the living room couch with spring blooms.

Attentif’ Design features items made by local residents, including cutting boards quite capable of standing up to the abuse kitchen tools endure. The cutting boards are durable, sturdy, well-made and crafted with attention to detail and quality of work.

Blockhead Cutting Boards

There are items in Attentif’ Design for homes of any square footage, from small detailed touches like jars, candles and figurines to larger pieces such as lamps, end tables and ottomans. When space is at a premium in a home, black and gold folding tray tables are a creative solution. The high rim of the tabletop prevents items from falling off. The table can remain set up as decoration or unfolded for extra surface area when needed. Truly a stunning addition to any interior design!

Folding black and gold tray tables.

Attentif’ Design does custom orders of items and owner Kathi Gannett is happy to work with customer’s ideas and requests. She offers interior design services and judging by her store, there’s no denying the quality of her work. Attentif’ Design is open later hours on the third Thursday of every month, which allows people more time to shop and view the seemingly endless decorative, beautiful and functional items for sale inside this unique store.

I adore a nice, hot, lengthy bubble bath. They’re especially wonderful in the winter when soaking in hot water is about the only thing that thaws out my frozen toes. My fingers and toes get all pruney, I feel utterly relaxed, and I wish I could carry that warm, comfortable feeling around with me wherever I go.

I do believe in writing what I love and that’s why many of my female characters partake in baths. I have extensive experience enjoying baths so it makes perfect sense to write about it! Such descriptive scenes are also a great way to warm me up when I’m feeling cold as I recall the sensations of figuratively melting in the tub.

My goal tonight was to write the bath scene from Unbroken Flames that went along with the bathroom rendering I roughed out last week. In its current state, the bathing area resembles a dungeon but it helps me visualize the scene in my head and keep details consistent. I created a second version of the same space that’s much more modern, clean and non-dungeon like as a way of demonstrating my ability to see the potential in even the most dismal seeming areas.

I wrote out the part in the story leading up to the bath and that took me longer than expected so the bath scene will wait. It’s all forward progress though and I’m happiest when I’m writing in my fiction stories, creating characters people can identify with even when there’s magic involved. Magic or no, nothing beats the warming power of a great bubble bath!

I learn something new every day as a freelance writer. I pick writing assignments off a job board and do my very best to fulfill the client’s requirements. Every article and blog post I write requires a certain amount of research because while I’ve already learned a lot over the past several years, the world is constantly changing.

Researching is my favorite part about the interior design pieces I do. As anyone who loves interior design, architecture and remodeling knows, Houzz.com is the place to go for amazing ideas and pictures of the outside and inside of homes. Peeking in the windows of grand, luxury homes and seeing all their rooms is truly a unique treat. I often wonder if the people who live in those homes actually appreciate everything they have or if it’s just an everyday thing for them to be surrounded by such beautiful architecture and interior design.

In one of my articles today I had to research bathrooms and how to keep them warm during the cold months. The client wasn’t looking for insulation suggestions and window replacements though some of them do want that. The idea was to achieve warmth in the bathroom through design elements rather than caulking and weather-stripping.

In my research I learned about the growing trend of placing fireplaces in bathrooms. It’s an intriguing idea and I admit it would be lovely sitting in a hot bubble bath watching flickering flames as cold winter wind and snow wreak havoc outside the windows.

I adore taking baths as do many of the female characters in the books I write. Now that I’ve looked through numerous pictures of fireplaces in bathrooms, I’ll be writing it into my stories and turning it into much more than the 200 word blog I created anonymously today.

I’ve been writing fantasy stories since the age of 12. I started after reading A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony. I found the idea of creating anything I wanted through my words extremely appealing! It was also a great escape from the trials and tribulations of my tween and teen years.

My beloved English teacher, Derek Hulse, read some of my fantasy work and one of the big things he told me I needed to work on was my scene descriptions. What I saw so vividly in my mind wasn’t coming across in my words and while that was disheartening to me, I knew I could improve! Derek always believed in me and with his help, I developed into a far better writer.

Through the years of writing about my fantasy world of Aindar, I created over 10 books that spanned multiple generations of my favorite characters. As the time passed and I tried to recall certain events and scenes from the past, my memory faltered and describing areas in a way accurate to times gone by became a challenge. I drew places out in sketchbooks such as houses, castles and outdoor scenes but I’m not a good enough artist to quickly, easily and realistically flesh out those scenes with pencil and paper. That’s when I decided to investigate 3D rendering programs.

This was back in the days of Windows 95, long before I had children. I came across a highly recommended program called Punch! Home Design and I bought it. It came with a thick book of instructions and helpful tips and for the first few weeks of using the program, that handbook was my best friend. Eventually I began figuring things out on my own and everything from then on has been self-taught through trial and error.

The floorplan for a room in one of my fantasy castles

A 3D view of one of the chambers of that castle room. I created the wall torches by modifying one of the program’s wall sconces.

I’ve continued to upgrade the program through the years and it’s still a very solid and easy to use 3D rendering program for my needs. When my Dell laptop was thoroughly killed by a random virus two years ago, I stopped creating houses. I kept meaning to install the program on my new Toshiba laptop but kept being sidetracked by life, the universe and everything.

Earlier this month I finally put the program on my laptop and then upgraded to the newest version. It’s lovely how quickly my Toshiba renders the 3D images! On my old laptop, it took forever and it sounded like the poor thing was going to expire. I’ve been refreshing my memory on the ins and outs of the program as I work on a sample room for my New England dream house.

A start to the living room of my New England dream home.

One of my favorite parts is tweaking the size, shape, color and material of the furnishings in the room. I’ve created several original 3D objects from scratch for castle scenes in my fantasy books. I’m a bit rusty in that area but I’m sure it will come back to me as I work more with it. Nothing compares to having the ability to walk right through the room I’m writing about in order to get all the details just right. Overall, I’m having a fun time rendering things I see in my dream and imagination into the reality of a 3D computer model.